Derek Trucks is an American guitarist, songwriter and founder of the Grammy Award winning The Derek Trucks Band. He became an official member of The Allman Brothers Band in 1999 and formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band in 2010 with his wife Susan Tedeschi. His musical style encompasses several genres and he has twice appeared on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time; currently 16th on the list.
Trucks was born June 8, 1979, in Jacksonville, Florida. His uncle, Butch, is a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. According to Trucks, the name of Eric Clapton's band, Derek and the Dominos, had "something to do with the name [Derek] if not the spelling”. His great-uncle, Virgil Trucks, was a professional baseball player.
Trucks bought his first guitar at a yard sale for $5 at age nine and became a child prodigy who played his first paid performance at age 11. Trucks began playing the guitar using a "slide" bar because it allowed him to play the guitar despite his small, young hands. By his 13th birthday Trucks had played alongside Buddy Guy and gone on tour with The Allman Brothers Band.
Trucks was born June 8, 1979, in Jacksonville, Florida. His uncle, Butch, is a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. According to Trucks, the name of Eric Clapton's band, Derek and the Dominos, had "something to do with the name [Derek] if not the spelling”. His great-uncle, Virgil Trucks, was a professional baseball player.
Trucks bought his first guitar at a yard sale for $5 at age nine and became a child prodigy who played his first paid performance at age 11. Trucks began playing the guitar using a "slide" bar because it allowed him to play the guitar despite his small, young hands. By his 13th birthday Trucks had played alongside Buddy Guy and gone on tour with The Allman Brothers Band.
Trucks prefers a pure sounding guitar tone and uses a modified Gibson USA SG 1961 reissue with a modified tailpiece and an additional 'stopbar' tailpiece connected to his 1965 Fender Super Reverb amplifier with four Pyle Driver MH1020 speakers.
Trucks usually plays the slide guitar in an open E tuning and uses the Dunlop Blues Bottle slide. Trucks is predominantly a fingerstyle guitarist, rarely using a guitar pick or plectrum. He uses custom gauge DR nickel-wound strings on his Gibson SG and resonator guitars.
In 2006, some of Trucks equipment including two vintage (1965 and 1968) Fender Super Reverbs amplifiers, a Hammond B-3 organ, two Leslie speaker cabinets and a Höhner E-7 Clavinet) were stolen and later recovered by the Atlanta police department.
With the Allman Brothers Band, Trucks is known to use PRS amplifiers.
In 2010, The Derek Trucks Band won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album for the album Already Free. In 2012, Trucks and Tedeschi as the Tedeschi Trucks Band won the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album for the band's debut album Revelator.
On February 12, 2012, Trucks accepted a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award along with ten other members of The Allman Brothers Band.
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Trucks has two albums with The Tedeschi Trucks Band: Revelator (2011) and Everybody’s Talkin’ (2012) as well as nine with the Derek Trucks Band: The Derek Trucks Band (1997); Out of the Madness (1998); Joyful Noise (2002); Soul Serenade (2003); Live at Georgia Theatre (2004); Songlines (2006); Songlines Live-DVD (2006); Already Free (2009); and Roadsongs (2010). He has four with the Allman Brothers Band: Peakin’ at the Beacon (2000); Hittin’ the Note (2003); Live at the Beacon Theatre-DVD (2003); and One Way Out (2004).
